


leave me (déjà vu)

by freshbloom



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Post S3, and then this lil drabble happened, basically i feel like brenner is gonna manipulate el into coming with him, free form, s4 prediction, there’s no real purpose to this besides angst dkdjs, this is! so ! angsty !! IM SORRY, to get her powers back, winter setting bc it’s my DREAM
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:55:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22379056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freshbloom/pseuds/freshbloom
Summary: "I'll help you. But," Brenner's face hardens, his resolve turning colder and more withdrawn. "You have to come with me.”The words sound far away, somehow, muffled. For just a second, he thinks he must have slipped into a dream, a nightmare, some fucked up vision, and he’s just stuck, he just needs to wake up. None of this is real.Or,Brenner is back, and he knows how to restore El’s powers. (s4 headcanon/prediction)
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler
Comments: 23
Kudos: 45





	leave me (déjà vu)

He's so cold he can't move. Snow is falling steadily from the sky, hazy little white flakes drifting like fallen stars and smothering the woods around them. The trees are all stripped to the bone and crystallized in the blankets of white, and everything is bathed and glowing a deep, navy blue like the sky above so that it feels like they're floating underwater.

Mike's Converse are soaked through, feet numb and frozen in their place. He's shaking underneath his sweater, skin stinging uncomfortably and flushed red in the bite of the wind. He's so cold he can feel it radiating off of him, a separate entity nestled between his clothes and his skin, burning and searing and forcing his breath out in cool white puffs. 

He thinks he might die, from the cold, or from this--from El, standing a few paces ahead of him and shaking, all pale and ghostly in the dying light and trying her best to stand tall. He wants to go to her, but he's afraid, and she is too, and it's all because of _him_. Brenner, standing in front of her, a ghost come to life again, real and whole and alive in the worst way. He's the cold personified--stark, dead eyes, pale white skin and hair and his words as piercing as ice. He's saying something, but Mike can just barely hear him. He's too busy trying to remember how to move, and he can't stop shaking only he doesn't know if it's from the cold anymore. _If I can get to El, I'll be okay,_ he thinks. He's about to brave a step forward when she speaks. 

"You can...help me?" She's saying slowly, words steady despite the way she's trembling. 

"Yes." Brenner replies, his voice hollow and echoing harshly in the small clearing. Mike flinches. It gets colder, somehow. 

"How?" 

"I can help you restore your powers, Eleven." Everything stops. Mike's not sure if any of them are breathing. 

"What?" El whispers, disbelief and quiet desperation lilting her tone. 

"I can help you get them back. I can help you save your friends." Brenner takes a step towards her, and something in Mike snaps--he's flooded suddenly with anger, deep-seated hatred coursing through him just as steadily as his own blood. 

"Bullshit," Mike seethes. "El, don't listen to him." Brenner glances at him, hollow gaze meeting his own, his eyes lingering for a second before flitting back to El. 

"I know the extent of your powers better than any of them. I can do it." He says, crossing his arms behind his back. 

"Why?" El whispers. Then, louder. "What do you want?" Her voice is shaking now, and Mike's stomach drops. 

"I'll help you. But," Brenner's face hardens, his resolve turning colder and more withdrawn. "You have to come with me.”

The words sound far away, somehow, muffled. For just a second, he thinks he must have slipped into a dream, a nightmare, some fucked up vision, and he’s just _stuck_ , he just needs to wake up. None of this is real. 

But then El takes a step forward, and Mike breaks. 

“El, don't! Don't do it!" He rushes towards her, his friends moving to do the same. He barely makes it a step before there’s arms holding him back--Lucas, maybe, he hears someone tell him to stop, to calm down-- wrapping around his chest and pinning him down. He struggles, thrashing and yelling. He feels twelve, useless and weak, crying in a school hall full of dead bodies. _Blood_ , he thinks. _Demogorgon_. Only there’s none of that, now. Just El, walking farther from him and closer to Brenner.

"Get the fuck away from her!" He calls out. Why won’t she look at him? Why is she doing this?

“Okay,” El says. She brings her arms up, hugging herself. Brenner’s lips twitch up into a smile. 

"Take me," Mike begs, words coming out desperate and small. "Take me instead of her." _Please,_ he thinks. _I can't do this again._ But Brenner doesn't even glance at him, and Mike is stuck struggling, trying to force his way out of the arms that are holding him back, when El finally turns towards him. 

"Mike," She says, smiling at him sadly. "It's okay." He's crying now, tears falling fast against his cheeks but he barely notices. He can't feel anything except her eyes on his, can't think straight or breathe right or do anything but let her slip away. 

"El, please. You can't do this."

"It's okay," She says again. "It'll be okay." He doesn't know if she's trying to reassure him or herself, but he know it's useless. Nothing about this okay. El turns back towards Brenner, her whole body stiffening under his gaze. She doesn't move away from him. Mike feels like dying. 

"I'll do it. I'll come with you. But you have to help me." She says, Brenner nods. _This isn’t real this can’t be real wake up wake up Mike._

"El..." He whispers. 

She looks at him, eyes glossed over with fear and so sad they cut straight through him, hair dusted with snowflakes and plastered against her face, red cheeks, pale lips, an old sweater of his hanging loosely on her frame, and his love for her is just as pure and as steady as the snow falling around them. And Mike loves her but it's not enough. He doesn't know how many times he can live through this, through her eyes on his, through the whole world tilted off its axis and her always on the verge of goodbye. He hates that he knows what comes next, that his heart is already settled into missing her. She takes a deep breath. He stops breathing. 

"Goodbye, Mike."

**Author's Note:**

> WELP! sorry for that but i had to do it i had to go full emo fkdjdjd  
> i’ve been missing mileven so much these days and i rlly feel like this is something that might happen in s4, so i thought i might as well just finish this lil drabble i started a while ago. 
> 
> lemme know what ur s4 predictions are!!  
> find me on tumblr: @calebsmclaughlins


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